The miniaturization of components and systems is advancing steadily in many areas of engineering. Consequently, micro-machining is becoming an important manufacture technology due to the increasing demand for miniaturized products in recent years. Precision machining aims the production of advanced components with high dimensional accuracy and acceptable surface integrity. This work presents an experimental study based on Merchant and Lee & Shaffer theories applied to precision radial turning of AISI D2 cold work tool and AISI 1045 medium carbon steels with uncoated carbide tools ISO grade K15. The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of feed rate on chip compression ratio (Rc), chip deformation (ε), friction angle (ρ), shear angle (Φ), normal stress (σ) and shear stress (•) for both work materials. The results indicated that the shear angle decreased and chip deformation increased as the chip compression ratio was elevated without significant differences between both materials. Additionally, higher cutting and thrust forces and normal and shear stresses were observed for the tool steel. Finally, the Lee & Shaffer model gave shear plane angle values closer to the experimental data.